Nettleton, MS asked in Libel & Slander, Criminal Law and Probate for Mississippi

Q: Someone had a car towed to my house they pased away 2 days later 10 monts go by then someone showes up to get the car

I told them their was storeag bill and they went and reported the car stolen and told law were it was and that i stole it

1 Lawyer Answer

A: If you had an agreement with the person who towed the car to your house to pay you a storage fee, you have the right to collect that fee from the deceased person's estate if the estate had enough money to pay that claim. You must present your claim with written evidence of the storage agreement (which might be emails or text messages if you did not sign a formal written storage agreement) to the personal representative of the deceased person's estate in a timely manner. That representative will notify you whether your claim is allowed or disallowed. If it is allowed, it will be placed with other claims in the same class and paid out of the money in the estate if there is enough money to pay all of the same class of claims as well as those which must be paid before your class (e.g. funeral expenses, burial expenses, medical bills, taxes, etc). If it is disallowed, you may have to sue the representative to establish your contractual right to collect the storage fees.

Unless you have a properly recorded lien against the vehicle for the storage fees, you likely do not have the right to retain possession of the vehicle. But you should surrender it only to the representative of the estate appointed by the probate court.

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